The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1887-08-17
A FRIGHTFUL DISASTER.
An Excursion Train With 1000
Souls Aboard Wrecked on
the IT,, 2. & w. r. r.
over 100 Dead and Four Times That Num-
Der IDjured--A Graphic Description
of the Terrible Affair.

this country were surpassed three miles
east Of ChatsWorth last night, when an
excursion train on the Toledo Peoria &
burning bridge and over one hundred peo-
ple we're killed and four times that mum
Der more or less wounded. The train was
composed Of six sleeping and six day
coaches and chair cars and three baggage
cars. 1t was carrying $50 passengers, all
excursiOnists, and was bound for Niagara
Falls The train had been made up on
the line Of the Toledo, Peoria & Western
road and the excursionists came from
various points in central Illinois. The
bulk of them however came from Peoria.
Some of them came from Canton, Elpaso,
Washington and intact from all stations
along the line; some from as far west as
Burlington and Keokuk. A special and
cheap rate had been made for the excur-
sion and all classes of people took advan-
tage of it. When the train drew out Of
Peoria at 8 o'clock p. M. it was
LOADED TO ITS FULL CAPACITY.
Every berth in the six sleepers was taken
and the day cars carried sixty people each.
The train was SO heavy that two engines
we're hitched to it and when it passed this
place it was one hour and a half behind
time. Chatsworth, the next station east Of
here is six miles off, and the run there
was made in seven minutes, so the terrible
momentum Of those fifteen coaches and
two heavy engines shooting through space
at the
RATE OF A MILE A MINUTE
can be understood. No stop was made at
Chatsworth, and on the heavy train with
its living freight sped through the dark
ness of the night. Three miles east of
yhatsworth is little slough where the
abroad crosses a dry run about ten feet
deep and fifteen wide. Over this was
stretched an ordinary wooden trestle
bridge, and as the train came laundering
down on it what was the terror Of the
engineer of the front engine when he saw
that the
BRIDGE WAS ON FIRE.
Right before his eyes leaped the bright
flames and the next instant he was among
them. There was no chance to stop.
Had there been warning, it would have
taken mile to have stopped that on-rush-
ing mass of wood, iron and human lives,
and the train was within 100 yards of the
red-tongued messenger of death before
they flashed their fatal flames into the
engineers face; but he passed over in
safety, the first engine keeping the rails
As it went over
THE BRIDGE FELL BENEATH 1T,
and it could only have been the terrific
speed of the train that saved the lives of
the engineer and his fireman. But the
next engine went down and instantly the
deed of death was done. Car crashed on
car, coach piled on coach, and in the
twinkling of an eye nearly 100 people
FOUND INSTANT DEATH
and fifty more we're perhaps fatally in
jured. AS for the wounded, they were
everywhere Only the sleeping coaches
escaped, and as the startled and half |
tressed passengers came out of them
they found
SUCH A SCENE OF DEATH
as is rarely witnessed and such work to
do that it seemed as if human hands were
utterly incapable of it. 1t lacked just
ilYe minutes Of midnight. Down in the
ditch lay the second engine, Engineer
NcClintock dead and Fireman Applegate
badly injured. On top Of each other, like
achild's card house after he had swept it
with his hand, lay the cars The six day
coaches were
iELEScoPED AS CARS NEVER WERE BEFORE,
ana three Of them were pressed into just
enough space for one. The second car
mad mounted off its trucks and crashed
'hfough the car ahead Of it, crushing the
woodwork completely and resting on top
Y The seats, while every passenger in it
was lying dead and dying underneath.
Out Of that car II
BUT FOUR PEOPLE CAME ALIVE
although the third car did not cover its
sdfer as completely as the other, it's bot ;
2n was smeared with the blood of its
@tlms. The other cars were not so badly
'ushed but they were broken and twisted
every conceivable way, and every tim t
~ and beam represented crushed hu- i
! lan frame or broken bone Instantly t
'"e air was filled with
I
n. Oile shrleks OF those about to die. {
vo sfoans OF men and the screams of {
sea o1'sn q united to make an appalling scene, /
cries r. ao0ye all could be heard the agonizing c
thew - httle children. In some instances /
rars,t tay pinned alongside Of their dead
- There was terrible danger yet Q